Ok- so it wasn't in Palm Springs- in fact about 30 miles further south. And the FAA did not let us use the south runway - which at 100 feet wide, more interconnecting taxiways, and billiard table smooth perfect asphalt would have been MUCH nicer than the 40 year old stuff we got to use.
Still overall a fun event that placed heavy emphasis on adaptability, acceleration, and sometimes foolhardy bravura. Two interconnecting straights that were a mile long with a taxiway on each end.
What could the organizers do to control speeds? Chicanes that really emphasized proper car placement and excellent braking. There were two chicanes on each straight. The back straight had them set like gates that required heavy braking then jogging through. The front straight had one large 1 1/2 decreasing S curve with a short run into a tight supposed-to-jog second gate. The second gate would get rearranged each session so it effectively became a high speed funnel to squirt your narrower Porsches through. The RSR replicas and other wide cars that participated were in deep $%*& with the chicanes.
Over 30 Porsches were in a group and they included some insanely fast and beautiful 356 speedsters, swb 911, swb 912, 914-4, 914-6, 69-73 911s of various displacements, and some RSR width cars.
With the surface being old, it deteriorated pretty badly. Even after 3 hours of sweeping on Friday night, there was the good road racing areas and the bad hope-you- are- a-rally driver spots. The added fun was that these would change during the course of each session and with the rearrangement of heavy plastic barriers by the entrants, so would the line. SO... each lap was a new experience. "will I be able to go flat out thru the second chicane this time, or have to heavy brake to avoid the cones left in the line?"
This resulted in quite a few spins- which then showed what 30 grit asphalt does to your tires. This also resulted in large areas where a "clean " 1.5 car wide line with traction and the "rallycross zone" where you had an invitation to lose it.
So the anticipated 3-5 cars across passing on the straights were rarely seen with the exception of just in front of turn one- slowest turn on the course. There the pavement could be decent enough to see some great passing. Other passing was the function of how much hp you had to out drag the other guy on the straights.

So... did i like it? Overall- yes. The organizers did what they could to ensure safety for the racers and had to deal with this location. The weather was incredible, and in spite of limited passing areas/ track problems, the racing could be darn tough. The people involved were supportive and looked for suggestions for improving the event for the future. The facility itself, being an airport, was decent and not far from hotels, parts stores, gas stations. You could even buy avgas for your racer at the pump there. ($3.50 gallon)

As DAve noted the course was a challange, just ask the half dozen cars with wrinkled sheetmetal from hitting the chicanes or sliding through a hay bale! I can really appreciate what the racers in the 60's went through with the airport circuits, before the modern speedways like Fontana. Here's some picts Ted's wife took.

I attended the races as a spectator with my two boys ages 7 and 11 and we had a great time. The Porsche run group put on a great show with a ton of dicing for positions. The highlight for me was Joe Catron driving Terry Soloman's 2.5L 914-6 in a race which included GT-350 Mustangs, a Big Block Vette, and a scary fast Sunbeam Tiger. Joe won the race easily and lapped about 1/2 of the field!! I could hear some fans grumbling about that little Porsshh being so damn quick!! I hope we get to see the 2nd annual, next year.

Once again I get to congratulate Joe Catron and Terry Solomom on a great weekend at Palm Springs.
Although Terry had some chassis problems that made driving the car in two run groups a little too dangerous, his car with Joe driving absolutely spanked the Big Bore cars.
That little #6 Supertec 2.5 Porsche in the able hands of Joe was so fast that it prompted the rules committee to list the car as exhibition on Sundays race. Those big bore guys who wined should be embarrasses.
The other great race was the Porsche Challenge. Joe once again took his 2.0 Supertec powered Porsche # 55 to the front winning the two liter Challenge and that victory gave him the HSR West 2.0 Porsche Challenge Championship for the year.
Way to go, Joe.

From the books and movie clips I've seen, this pretty much duplicated the airport circuits of the 60s? Was it exciting, depends on the race group I guess, but rounding a corner right as someone just made a hay bale explode was about as exciting as I need to get?!

In all fairness to Ed, the airport only allowed the use of the north end runway area. When we surveyed the airport a couple years ago- the south runway condition was like a freshly paved racetrack. FAA and airport management said no way to using that one- which is very unfortunate. The event suffered for it- that is for sure. However airport management is determined to make the future a lot better for the airplane clientele (and hence the races) with already planned repaving, cleaning, etc coming in the future for the north end. 2007 is the target date for the widening/ repaving and addition of more intermediate taxiways. This will make the course a lot more interesting, safer, better for spectators. I would love to see these changes happen sooner- but the usual environmental impact and other stuff won't allow it.
From the monday morning quarterback pov- Could Ed have done a better job for this particular event? Of course- he would be the first to tell you so. But I am sure he has learned from it and hopefully can produce this event again to establish the type of event we all look forward to.